METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

Daniel Libeskind was born in Poland after the war; he has been an American citizen since 1965. He is a man of many talents, who studied music and practised as a musician before taking up architecture (he graduated at the 'Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art ' in New York in 1970).
His success in the architectural field comes with the Jewish Museum of Berlin in 1989 and the subsequent opening of a studio in the German capital. Among his most famous projects, we may cite 'The Spiral Extension 'of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, 2003.

His latest project, more modest in dimensions and prestige compared with previous ones, is an extension of the Metropolitan University of London (760 sq. metres 2. 000. 000 pounds), in an area certainly not among the most elegant in the English capital.

The Orion, the North Star, as Libeskind has named this building, can be found on the Holloway Road, an anonymous road like many others on the outskirts, north of the city. For this reason the contrast with the adjacent urban context, is very strong, dramatic, even if the designer emphazises that the building is positioned modestly among its neighbours. We move from insignificant three floor buildings, to this shining sculpture, composed of three parts with different orientations that overlap (the first looks towards the Entrance to the Underground), the second comes after the adjacent students' centre, and the last is parallel to the road). The new buildings provide some classrooms, one of which can hold 100 persons, and a series of links with the different wings of which the Metropolitan University is composed.

It is not merely the irregular shape of the windows, or the cold metal panelling, or its unusual propensities that make this building recognisable as typically Libeskind. The architect is, in fact, also famous for his refusal to be obsessed with details, like a lot of his colleagues, and for accepting the limits that a budget involves. For this reason the building is in a certain sense crude, above all if you stop to observe the details of the panelling, or the windows, or the ceilings constructed with standard material but not with standard angles, due to the particular inclinationss of the walls. Nonetheless it has been recognised by art critics as an enchanting and well planned building.